This isn't terribly relevant to anything RPoL-wise, but while walking around my house in a sleepy daze the slow arrhythmic ticking of my mind went and disproved the Many-Worlds theory. Now, I'm not saying I'm smarter than a bunch of famous mathematicians and physicists. It's entirely possible this only works through a gross oversimplification and/or misunderstanding of what Many-Worlds is, but I found it amusing and wanted to brag for fun (but assuredly not profit).

What follows is my step-by-step rationale:

- Many-Worlds states that for every possible scenario, there are an infinite number of worlds in which it is true and in which it is false (assuming a binary scenario).

- If Many-Worlds is true, there exist universes in which Many-Worlds is true and in which Many-Worlds is false.

- If Many-Worlds is false, there do not exist any worlds in which Many-Worlds is true.

- Worlds in which Many-Worlds is true cannot coexist with any world in which Many-Worlds is false.

- Many-Worlds must be false due to mutual exclusivity.

Hmmm... what do you think?
This message was last edited by the user at 16:36, Wed 30 July 2014.

That is not what many worlds argues if I recall correctly.

I prefer the Discworld variation anyway.  In an infinite universe of infinite possibilities everything is possible somewhere, no matter how unlikely or absurd.  That place is Discworld.

According to the very brief read on Wikipedia, this doesn't seem valid.

It merely accounts for timelines, not laws of the universe such as conservation of energy and many worlds itself.

Exactly. Many-Worlds is about events, not universal laws.

Well shoot. Aw well, it was a fun little excursion.

This exist, it's called Entropy - the Null Void, death of all existence, etc.

In reply to ShadoPrism (msg # 6):

Mu? =P

In reply to ShadoPrism (msg # 6):

The Blackest Night..?

the death of all light (star death), end of everything, no probabilities left.

The subtle sound of spheres aligning. The spectacle of the oldest chains breaking. The hungry hiss of Great Old Ones waking up...

All possible. Though if the many world's scenario IS true in any context then it follows that your reasoning is false.

Mutual exclusion doesn't exist in the many worlds hypothesis. Which means there can't be a universe where it doesn't exist. That doesn't preclude a world where the laws that might govern reaching such a place where there exists a natural law style barrier and so the many worlds idea might not exist to that local reality.

Also, probability is a result of causality and it's differing possibilities, therefore the nature of many worlds must include different variations on how the universal laws have shaken out. Since energy, matter and laws of the universe have causality and therefore are subject to probability, not to mention that many of these laws can be pinned to subatomic particles of matter.

For example, there is a point before which there was no heavy metals like iron in the universe, and therefore magnetism did not exist as we know it now. It took stars to create a lot of elements we know exist today. What's to say that a tiny variation in the big bang didn't make enough higgs-boson particles that would eventually allow stars to form in some other universe?

I'm just an armchair scholar though, not an actual physicist.

That last statement is false.  There many be universes for which the many worlds hypothesis is false while it is true for us.  How is this possible?  Quantum electrodynamics is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly quantumey-wuantumey... stuff.

There's the problem.  By it's very definition, Many-Worlds cannot be either true or false within a single universe.  So there is no "universe in which..." for something which can only exist over many universes, it makes no sense to say it exists or doesn't in one universe.

Just as a single atom cannot have a temperature or be alive, it is an emergent property.

Second associated problem.  Many-worlds assumes only every possible scenario exists.  If Many-Worlds is true, then Many-worlds being false is not a possible scenario, and does not exist, in any universe.

Hm, this discussion reminds me of the Amber rpg.

Yes! :D
Although not the RPG so much, which I never played, as the books, which I really enjoyed.

My brains hurts... I need breakfast :)

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 16):

Sorry about that. xD